Recently, telecommunication regulators around the globe have enacted a policy of liberalisation with respect to spectrum allocation for wireless communication systems to increase accessibility as well enhance the transmission capacity of wireless communication devices populating those systems. Rival radio access technologies in different regions of the world are now sharing frequency bands as a result of refarming spectrum previously allocated exclusively to just one radio access technology. For example, Global Systems for Mobile Communication (GSM) frequencies in some countries occupied the same frequencies now used by wide band systems such as wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), code division multiple access 2000 (CDMA2000), or Interim Standard 95 (IS95) as a result of refarming initiatives. In particular, in North America and Latin America GSM frequency bands PCS1900, GSM900 and GSM850 overlap with frequencies employed by Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Networks (UTRAN) such as bands 2 and 5 as a result of spectral politics. Similarly, in 2009 the European Commission directed that all European Union countries implement spectrum policies reflecting liberalisation of spectrum among revival radio access technologies, as such creating opportunities for overlap between GSM networks and wide band systems as well as UTRA networks.
More recently, telecommunication regulators around the globe are in the process of frequency refarming frequencies employed by wide band systems and UTRAN to fourth generation (4G) wireless mobile communication technologies, such as Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Networks (EUTRAN) in accordance with the Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) Long Term Evolution LTE/LTE-Advance (LTE-A) standards. Also, various working groups of 3GPP are investigating work items related to Release 12 and future Release 13 of the LTE-A/LTE-Beyond (LTE-B) standards. Such work items are studying technical enablers to enhance frequency re-use and densification of macro cells (e.g. increasing numbers of access points with greater frequency reuse such as femto and pico eNBs in close proximity). Accordingly, once frequencies employed by wide band systems and UTRAN are further reframed to LTE/LTE-A/LTE-B networks and cells become hyper-densified, overlapping of frequencies will become significant.
As a result of the above described overlap of frequency bands, various performance issues have developed. These performance issues are due to increases in adjacent channel interference (ACI) and co-channel interference (CCI). For example, one well documented 2G performance phenomenon is that a single 3G frequency band is typically detected as 21 to 25 separate 2G cells. As such, initial cell searching and synchronisation times for a mobile station (MS) (or user equipment (UE) with GSM capabilities) have been prolonged. A corollary to such prolonged cell searching and synchronisation is an increase in battery power consumption, which is perceived by the end users as reduced standby and talk/data times.
The following abbreviations which may be found in the specification and/or the drawing figures are defined as follows:                2G Second Generation        3G Third Generation        4G Fourth Generation        3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project        ACI adjacent channel interference        BA BCCH allocation        BCCH broadcast control channel        BSIC base station identity code        BTS base transceiver station        CDMA code division multiple access        CDMA2000 code division multiple access 2000        DL downlink        EDGE Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution        EUTRAN Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network        FB frequency correction burst        FCCH frequency correction channel        GERAN GSM/EDGE radio access network        GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System        GSM Global Systems for Mobile Communication        GMSK Gaussian minimum shift keying        HSPA high-speed downlink packet access        IS 95 interim standard 95        ISI inter-symbol interference        LTE Long Term Evolution        LTE-A Long Term Evolution Advanced        MS mobile station        QAM quadrature amplitude modulation        RF radio frequency        RSSI received signal strength indicator        SCH synchronisation channel        TDMA time division multiple access        TS transmission slot        UE user equipment        UL uplink        UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network        WCDMA wideband code division multiple access        